Are you making New Year’s resolutions this year?
When I realize another whole 12 months have passed by in a blur I’m always a bit in shock. Looking at my Instagram feed, I appear to be getting out and about but not like it was before you know what. Dear reader, travel and life hasn’t exactly picked up where it left off has it?
Perhaps you’ve already jumped on a few flights and are busy getting on with your life. My hat’s off to you!
As the year comes to an end, I wonder how you’re feeling about the New Year? Are you making resolutions or do you prefer to avoid thinking about what the future holds?
I believe any ending is an opportunity to move forward – hopefully and with faith. The new year is no exception.
However winter is a tough time to kickstart a diet, leap into a gym or resolve to cut down on drinking. When it’s cold and gloomy outside, it’s not the easiest time to wean yourself is it? They don’t call it comfort food for nothing.
Resolutions to exercise more, inspired by holiday indulgence, may be classically doomed to failure. Gyms are notoriously busy in January only for attendance to rapidly drop off as spring approaches!
The holidays can create a vicious cycle of indulgence, guilt and remorse. We’re asked to shop til we drop, spend til we’re broke, eat drink and be merry. But once the New Year pops up we’re expected to drop our indulgent habits and shape up!
It takes a healthy dose of self confidence to be happy with the way we look. Heck I even find myself comparing my figure to that of much younger women, but then I cut myself some slack. One of the advantages to being a certain age is allowing yourself some grace, n’est ce pas?
Are New Year’s Resolutions Doomed to Fail?
I’m not opposed to the idea of using the New Year as an excuse to get my act together. It’s a chance to reboot and get down to business. But I can’t remember the last time I made an actual New Year’s resolution.
Perhaps it’s because I don’t like to fail or set myself up for disappointment!
Let’s agree New Year’s resolutions can be counter productive and not worth the calories.
Swap New Year’s Resolutions for New Year’s Reinvention
Instead of making a resolution to lose weight or banish clutter, what if we reframe the cliche? Let’s turn a resolution into a more meaningful exercise like reinvention. Forget I said exercise, ha ha.
What Does it Mean to Reinvent Yourself?
Resolutions seem to imply we’re faulty and need to be fixed. Reinvention is assessing what works and what doesn’t and then choosing to change what isn’t working.
Reinvention Might Look Like This
You wake up one day and realized you haven’t fulfilled your dream of traveling to Italy.
And you’ve always had a lemony prosecco fueled dream of being adored in Italian. wink
So what’s it going to take to get you there? Do it. Or at least make a start.
Can you find an accountability partner who wants to go too?
Could you start saving for a travel fund?
How about getting a little planning help?
You won’t get there by resolving to, you’ll get there by putting a solid plan in place for your dreams.
Reinvention Feels Like This
When you put your dreams and desires as a priority, being aware of what you need to feel fulfilled is the first step.
Actually reinvention only really becomes possible when we ARE self aware. You have to know what you want before you can claim it.
Claiming your right to make your dreams and needs a priority has a fabulous side effect. The more you feel entitled to your dreams, the more your self esteem grows as you take the steps to act on those desires. When we feel we deserve our dreams, we naturally take the steps to make them real.
How to Make Reinvention a Practice
Promise me every time you think of the word “should” you stop and go. Hmmm. That’s not me, that’s my ego talking.
Reinvention comes from your heart and intuition. Your heart knows what it wants if you’ll listen to it.
Your intuition is a crumb. Follow it, listen to it and heed it. It knows where you want to be and how to get there.
What about those Italian lessons? Go for it!
Drop Those New Year’s Resolutions
The next time you hear of another New Years resolution, I hope you’ll feel a secret fizz of satisfaction when you realize you’ve dropped that old habit. Instead you’ve picked up a killer self care routine called reinvention. Where will you start today?